Key Cavern, the third dungeon of Link’s Awakening, was definitely a big jump in difficulty compared to the first two. I started dying on a regular basis here, mostly because some of the enemies started doing larger amounts of damage, compared to the half hearts I was losing up to now.

These Bomb Enemies are annoying. Once hit, they bounce around the room and explode.

Even so, I somehow managed to get both the map and the compass, though I only got the compass when I already explored most of the dungeon. The focus of the dungeon was getting four keys in order to gain access to the boss area. The boss area was a separate area of the dungeon, connected with the main area by a side scrolling part, hidden behind a total of four lock blocks. Basically, it was all about getting keys. I needed to get one key to enter a room with another key, etc., until I got into a series of rooms where I could get more than key at a time.

Mini-Boss: Dodongo Snakes

It’s easy to waste bombs in the Dodongo Snakes battle, but if you waste more than two, you lose.

The mini-boss was a pair of worms that swallow bombs, so that was the only way to kill them. The difficulty there was that I could only carry ten bombs at a time, and I needed 8 in total to kill both of them. They love to change movement directions, so it was easy to waste a bomb. After several attempts, I managed to do it with one bomb left. This got me one more key and I was finally able to enter the room with the item of the dungeon – the Pegasus Boots.

Item: Pegasus Boots

The Pegasus Boots allow link to dash, which allows him to kill some enemies more easily, break through some objects, such as those green crystal pillars, and when combined with the Rock Feather, jump greater distances. The last ability was the crucial to get the Nightmare Key and eventually, get to the boss room.

Pegasus Boots were key in getting the last key!

Boss: Slime Eyes

The Key Cavern boss was a giant blob with an eye in the middle. It was actually easy, compared to the rest of the dungeon and the Bottle Grotto’s boss. In the first phase, I had to dash into it until I managed to split it in two. On each hit, Link gets knocked back, so the difficult part was staying on top of the boss and dashing into him before he recovered.

The Slime Eyes were actually easy, considering how hard the dungeon was.

Once the first phase was over, I just had to kill each of the two halves. The key here was not to spam-attack both of them, because then both would jump into the air, jump back down, stun Link and then damage him. Focusing on one at a time on my second attempt made the second phase extremely easy and the fight was one.

This room is easy to clear, it’s close to some stairs, and it contains a heart or two. Great for healing!

I got another heart container and another instrument – a Bell. Now, it was time to explore the world with my new dashing ability. I already have a couple of locations in mind. The Key Cavern is done for.

I’ve noticed Link’s Awakening is a bit less formulaic compared to the original Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past. I got out of the dungeon, with the owl immediately telling me the swamp is my next goal and as I got back to the village, I was told there was a moblin attack. The game pointed me in the direction of madam Meow Meow, where I wound out they took her dog.

Before I forget this, I took a note of something in the Tail Cave

• There’s a bomb-able wall in one of the rooms in the Tail Cave dungeon

Rescuing Madam Meow Meow’s Dog

In any case, again, various hints within the game told me I can find the moblin lair somewhere in the highlands. I made the mistake of going straight for the swamp, though, so I spent some time looking for the place. With my new jumping ability, I found some chests with rupies, so I was getting close to buying the shovel from the village shop, but I couldn’t find the moblin lair anywhere.

Where is the Moblin Dungeon in Link’s Awakening?

I decided to go back to the village and start looking from the start again. This turned out to be a good idea. I found there’s a chasm I can jump over on the screen with the witch’s hut and that was finally the route I needed to take. The moblin cave was a few screen’s after that.

Yes, I must be an assassin. The magic acorn I got in the previous room helped with this boss fight.

The moblin lair was basically a smaller dungeon, with a couple of rooms where I needed to defeat all the enemies and a mini-boss in the final room. The boss was easy to defeat, but I’m not used to following patterns and playing carefully (to few games these days ask for this), so I managed to lose on my first try. The trick was to just dodge the boss until it crashes the wall and then hit him once. Doing this a couple of times was enough to defeat him.

Exploration

I got madam Meow Meow’s dog and I loved having it with me. It was basically a companion which attacks enemies nearby automatically and can even kill enemies I can’t hurt. This turned out to be the key in entering the next dungeon – Bottle Grotto, but more on that later.

What a cute puppy!

I spent some time exploring and found a few more items. I got another heart container near the area with the witch’s hut, in a very obvious place. I can’t be sure,  but I think I also found another one somewhere nearby. I need to take better notes. I also got several chests with rupies, so I got more than enough for the shovel, but I didn’t buy it yet, mostly because I didn’t get around to going back to the village.

Finally, I got to the next dungeon, the Bottle Grotto. I stumbled into it earlier on, but I couldn’t enter it because it was surrounded by plant enemies I couldn’t hurt (but they sure could hurt me). As I said, the key to entering was the dog. It had no problem devouring the plants and clearing a path.

Link’s Awakening Dungeon #2 – The Bottle Grotto

The Bottle Grotto was definitely harder than the Tail Cave. The layout was circular, with two basic paths I could explore. The left path was shorter, required a key and took me to the room with the Owl Beak.

Owl Beak, you ask? I forgot to mention this in my previous posting, but some of the rooms int he dungeons have beakless Owl statues. Finding the beak gives Link the ability to get hints from the statues, which was extremely helpful in the Bottle Grotto.

The cyclops was easy to beat. You need to dodge the bombs and hit him when he calms down. That’s it.

The right path was much longer and it lead me to a side scrolling area, which then lead me to the second half of the dungeon and a cyclops mini-boss. Throughout all of this, I was mostly fighting bats and skeletons with a couple of those enemies that mimic Link’s actions. The cyclops was easy to beat. I just had to dodge his bombs and movement, while hitting him when I had the chance.

Next up was an annoying room with bats and a “magnet” which pulled everything towards it. Of course, the room was also full of chasms, so I ended up losing a lot of health in that one.

The Power Bracelet

A few rooms after the cyclops room, I finally found the treasure of the dungeon, the Power Bracelet. A few moments after that, I found one of the game’s annoyances. For some reason, the designers decided that every time I run into a lift-able object without having the power bracelet equipped, I would get a dialogue box slowly telling me “I can’t just lift this object with my bare hands”. In a dungeon where you constantly have to switch between the Power Bracelet and the Roc Feather, this got really annoying, really fast.

The Power Bracelet is needed to lower this platform.

After getting the bracelet, I explored the rest of the area and spent a lot of time being lost, trying to figure out where the Nightmare Key was.

The Bottle Grotto Nightmare Key

Thanks to the Compass and it’s new ability to chime every time I enter the room with a hidden key, I found the room where the Nightmare Key was supposed to be. It was the room with a cloaked swordsman enemy, a bat and one of those rabbit enemies. Again, since I’m bad with names, I had to google the name of the bat enemies. The bat enemies are called Keese. As for the other two, the game told me their names. The rabbits are called Pols Voice and the swordsmen are Stalfos.

As I said, an Owl statue was important in the Bottle Grotto. There was a side scrolling area connecting the Nigthmare key room and an Owl statue room. The Owl statue outright told me I need to kill the “Trapped Polls Voice” first and the Stalfos last. Logically, this meant the killing order in the Nightmare key room was

1. Pols Voice (the rabbit)
2. Keese (the bat)
3. Stalfos (the skeleton)

Killing them in this order made a chest appear and I finally had the nightmare key. Two rooms later, I was in the room with the Nightmare door. A few more rooms and another side scrolling area after that and I was in the boss room.

The Genie Boss of the Bottle Grotto

OK. It’s possible Link’s Awakening DX is giving me a few hints to many, because the Genie almost outright told me what I needed to do to kill it. The pattern was easy to figure out. First, the Genie is out of it’s bottle, throwing fireballs at me. After dodging 8 of those, he goes back into the bottle. Picking the bottle up and throwing it does some damage and causes the Genie to come back out and throw fireballs again. Repeating this four time destroys the bottle.

The first part of the Genie fight is easy to master.

After that, the Genie floats around and throws fireballs. Hitting it causes it to go invincible, split up and move around in a spiral for a while, before being hit-able again. A few more of these hits and the battle is over.

Simple, but again, I’m out of practice. I probably had to repeat the battle ten or so times before I finally got it right. I got annoyed to, because it’s quite a trek to get from the entrance to the boss room, even with the warp shortcut. Even worse, I had to switch between the Bracelet and the Feather a couple of times on the way there, which meant there was a lot of dialogue cancelling.

The second phase of the battle is harder, but Link has plenty of health if the first part is done right.

Still, knowing you’re getting better at the game with each try is a great feeling and part of why I decided to do this Legend of Zelda challenge. Eventually, I got to the point where I could go through the bottle phase without getting hit and finally, I beat the Genie with one heart remaining.

I got the second instrument, the Conch Horn and the Bottle Grotto was clear. Next up, the Savannah.

I’m bad with names. I’m really bad with names. When I meet someone for the first time, I don’t think their name even enters my memory. I have to make a conscious decision to remember and repeat the name in my head just so It doesn’t go away immediately. The same goes with any other name.

Because of that, I couldn’t remember the name of the first dungeon of Link’s Awakening, nor the name of most of the characters in the game, other than Link, of course. Luckily, some quick googling helped with that, so I can now say I cleared the first dungeon – Tail Cave.

• Zelda Wiki – List of All the Dungeons in Link’s Awakening

Koholint Island

Link’s Awakening is something of an off-shot of the main story arc of the Legend of Zelda series, the way I understand it. According to the story, After the previous games, Link is now a hero. He travels on his ship, ends up in a storm and crashes on the shores of the Koholint Island. To get off the island, he needs to wake up the Wind Fish.

This is how the game begins. Marin finds Link on the beach.

I can’t really understand how they do it, but the Zelda series manages to have a very minimal story in each game, but it all adds up to a complex and extremely interesting overall story arc. What I wrote above is pretty much everything the player needs to know about Link’s Awakening. There’s the backstory and the motivation and that’s it. Of course, stuff is added to it throughout the game, but no more than needed, which is very little.

Getting the Sword and the Shield

Link wakes up at the home of Marin, who he mistakes for Zelda for a moment, and her father Tarin. Taring gives him the shield and points him towards the beach where Marin found him, hinting something important might be there.

Tarin gives Link his shield, saying his name is written on it.

Before I went to the beach, I explored the village, checked out the shops and talked to everyone. I decided to do this playthrough completely walkthrough free, so instead, I’ll be taking notes (thank you, OneNote).

Talking to the NPCs made me realize the game is self-referencing a lot. The kids in the village give me tips about the gameplay and then finish with “I don’t know what that means, I’m just a kid”, there’s a Yoshi doll I can get at a game store, and there’s a lot of tips I can read up on on various signs and in the Village Library. There’s also a building with a phone in it. On the other side of the phone line is a person named Ulrira, who seems to be telling me what my next objective is. Overall, Link’s Awakening is the most approachable Legend of Zelda game yet.

I’m behind in postings, of course. My writing sessions are about as long as my playing sessions.

It also seems to control much more easily and fluently. The movement and the actions are less rigid, so I can dodge more easily. I still get hit, but it feels more like my fault when it happens and not that I’m not used to the controls, liked it felt in the past.

Anyway, I talked to everyone, took some notes and finally got to the beach, where I found my sword. I have two items now. Here are the notes I took:

• Papahl’s wife wants the Yoshi doll for their kid.
• Papahl will be lost in the hills later on in the game (this is more self-referencing).
• Sale at the Sale’s House O’ Bananas is interested in any canned food.
• One of madam Meow Meow’s dogs is interested in jewelry and accessories.
• There’s a monkey on a tree near Sale who throws coconuts at me.
• There’s a bomb-able wall on the beach near where the sword was.
• There’s a book on the top shelf in the village library that I can’t reach
• There’s another book in the library that apparently needs a magnifying glass.

After getting the sword, I immediately went back to the village to deal with some of the requests. I got the Yoshi doll and got a ribbon as a reward for that. I gave the ribbon to the dog and got a can of dog food. I then gave the dog food to Sale, who gave me bananas. I tried somehow giving those to the monkey, but they aren’t a select-able item and I don’t know how to talk to it.

Getting the sword plays the famous Zelda tune. It’s also definitely Link’s sword because his name is written on it.

I also got a heart piece from the well above the library. Getting four heart pieces in a Zelda game gives Link an extra heart container, so those are always great to pick up.

An owl (yes, we finally have the annoying owl) told me to go to the Mysterious Woods next, so that’s exactly what I did.

The Mysterious Woods

The screen went darker when I got to the Mysterious Woods. I don’t this happens on the original GameBoy, so it’s a nice touch on the color version. I had to fight a lot of Moblins while there, and I also find an item or two I wont be able to get until later, so I took some notes, or a note:

• There’s a heart piece in a cave that I can’t get to. I need to be able to lift giant skulls

I found a toadstool and a witch’s hut, so I gave her the mushroom. I got a bag of magical powder. I used this magical powder on a raccoon  who turned out to be Tarin, transformed by a toadstool he ate (the circle of life). I’m not sure what the importance of this is, but I did it. The witch told me to bring her more toadstools if I need more powder, so I’ll probably be doing that later. I also tried using the powder on other stuff. It lights up braziers and temporarily stuns that invulnerable enemy that electrifies me when I attack it, but I didn’t discover anything else.

Mushrooms are bad, kids. This is Tarin on mushrooms.

I was supposed to find the key for the first dungeon in the Mysterious Woods, so that’s what I eventually did, but it took me a while to find it. The place is pretty much a maze, so I got lost once or twice.

Link’s Awakening Dungeon #1 – The Tail Cave

The Tail Cave was located to the south of the village, north of the beach. I actually stumbled into it before I ever got to the Mysterious Woods, but I had to get the key to enter it.

I wonder why it’s called the Tail Cave…

The dungeon itself was easy, as I expected, since it’s the first dungeon. I found the compass and the map within the first few rooms and I beat the mini-boss a few rooms after that. The compass got a bit of an upgrade since A Link to the Past, or at least I think it did. It now creates a sound every time I enter a room where I can get a key. This can be useful with rooms where there’s a trick to get it. I don’t think the compass did this in A Link to the Past, but I might be wrong.

The item of the dungeon was the Roc Feather, which allows link to jump. It can even be used in the short side scrolling sections within the dungeons, which turns this part of the game into a full-fledged platformer. While we’re on the subject of the side scrolling sections, there are goomba and piranha plant enemies from the Super Mario series in those, which is a great touch.

Real goombas! Awesome!

Defeating the mini-boss involved jumping over things he sends at me, so I immediately got an opportunity to practice the jumping. The final boss of Tail Cave was more familiar and straight forward, but also far more annoying. It was the snake/worm boss with a vulnerable tail from the previous games. As before, if he hit me the wrong way, he would send me to the floor bellow, though this didn’t take away my health this time, and I had a much easier time getting back to the boss than in A Link to the Past. Still, it’s a very annoying boss.

I will always hate this boss, always!

Killing it got me my first heart container and the first of the 8 instruments needed to awaken the Wind Fish, which by the way, apparently is neither wind or a fish. The first instrument was a cello.